In a compelling intersection of law, crime, and politics, the defence attorneys that Donald Trump recently employed to represent him in his ongoing Georgia RICO prosecution, Steve Sadow and Drew Findling, have a previous notable client – a man that managed to pilfer millions from billionaires from within a maximum security prison. Subsequently caught, this audacious thief was also prosecuted by the same judge overseeing Trump’s case, Judge Scott McAfee. It’s a dramatic confluence of events that even the most imaginative Hollywood writer would struggle to pen.
Above the Law recounts this intriguing narrative of Arthur Cofield, a man who at 16 years old was convicted of a clumsily executed armed robbery. Following his relatively unimpressive initial foray into crime, Cofield went on to drastically improve his criminal capacities while incarcerated. Armed with smuggled cell phones and conspiring associates on the outside, Cofield successfully implemented a scheme that saw substantial amounts of money manoeuvred out of the accounts of billionaires.
One of these accounts belonged to Sidney Kimmel, a nonagenarian clothier, Hollywood producer, and billionaire. Cofield managed to create an online brokerage account under Kimmel’s name, authenticate it with the latter’s personal information, and ultimately secure an eleven million dollar wire transfer, used to purchase gold coins.
When the ingenious scheme was eventually discovered, the tables turned and it was Cofield himself who was in need of legal representation. Uniting the subjects of our fascinating storyline, he hired Sadow and Findling, Trump’s present-day defense counsel.
It’s an engrossing tale of audacious crime, steadfast defense, and overarching legal suspense. For more details, you may delve into the whole story as reported by Charles Bethea of the New Yorker here.